Girls schools blown up in Peshawar, Bajaur

PESHAWAR/BAJAUR AGENCY: Two more government-run girls’ schools were blown up by unidentified militants in Peshawar and Bajaur tribal region on Monday.

In Peshawar, the primary school for girls was blown up at Mashogagar village. It was the second girls’ school in the limits of Badbher police station which was blown up during the current month. Another school for girls was blown up in Sulemankhel on June 4. Mashogagar union council nazim Major (retired) Mohammad Iqbal told Dawn that his residence was located close to the school the blasts smashed windowpanes and damaged doors, windows and ventilators of his house.

“We heard a huge blast at 2am and parts of broken bricks hit my family members who were sleeping in the open owing to prolonged power suspension in the area,” he added. The nazim said that three blasts occurred with an interval of about five minutes and consecutively which panicked people.

A resident identified as Siddique, who the nazim said was brother of the school’s watchman sustained injuries. The residence of the injured person is also located closed to the school site.

The nazim said it was the first-ever incident of its kind in his locality, which scared the people to great extent. He said it was the sole primary school for girls in the vicinity where more than 100 students were enrolled.

He said the government would have to allocate funds for reconstruction of the building as it was completely destroyed. He said the criminals were taking advantage of the prolonged power outages.

A Police official said that people had seen suspected persons roaming in the area but they didn’t know about their intentions. He said that people knew the saboteurs but no body was ready to disclose their names. He said that local people were not ready to cooperate with police, fearing reaction from militants.

BAJAUR AGENCY: Unidentified militants blew up another government-run girls’ school in Khar, regional headquarters of the tribal region, on Monday.

The saboteurs had planted improvised explosive device at the four-room building of the primary school. All the four rooms of the school razed to ground. The record and furniture of the school were also destroyed.

The political administration arrested 25 tribesmen in a crackdown under collective territorial responsibility act of FCR. The officials were of the view that those tribesmen had signed a 28-point peace agreement with government under which they were responsible to protect the government’s property and installations.